VISTA  Vista Redevelopment Director Bill Rawlings understands why developers haven’t built anything in the city’s most blighted stretch of roadway, known as Paseo Santa Fe, in more than 20 years.

The street is ugly, he said, and it floods when it rains. Power lines are strung along poles, sidewalks are crumbling, potholes are filled with sand. Commuters zoom through without stopping.

For decades, problems have plagued the mile-long stretch of South Santa Fe Avenue between Main Street and Escondido Avenue. In the mid-1980s, city leaders worked to shut down bars where fights broke out, but most improvements were put on hold, in part because of the flooding.

Most businesses — with the notable exception of a new Sonic Drive-In at the north end — sit in aging strip malls with hand-lettered signs. Vacant storefronts where businesses have failed, including an auto-parts store and a Vietnamese market, dot the landscape.

“If it was developable, the private sector would do it,” said Rawlings, who has worked for successful redevelopment agencies in Orange County and Lynwood.

Under Rawlings’ direction, city officials are moving toward a full makeover of the street. The goal is to attract private investors to pump half a billion dollars into the area.

“If you have $10 million to invest, I want you to think: ‘Wow, this is the place to invest it,’ ” Rawlings said.

To lure those deep-pocketed investors, the city expects to spend $80 million to $100 million to fix the street, including the poor drainage, and assemble land. However, those costs could change significantly, Rawlings said. The money comes mainly from the increase in property tax generated by improvements in the redevelopment area, known as “tax increment.”

Mayor Morris Vance said he’s confident of the redevelopment strategy. “I think it will give the city a better image,” Vance said, “and that will in itself generate a higher class of development in the community.”

If the plan succeeds, Paseo Santa Fe will become a thriving mixed-use district of mainly four-story buildings with shops, offices and condos. Residents want the new businesses to include a bookstore and more restaurants. Instead of being a thoroughfare dominated by traffic, it will have a vibrant, downtown feel.

The plan is similar to the downtown area in the city of Orange, Rawlings said, “but it’s unique to Vista.”

The Paseo Santa Fe plan has support from civic leaders, including members of the Vista Village Business Association:

• Flooding fixes: The city will build a huge retaining basin along with other drainage improvements.

• Improving the look: Officials are designing a “streetscape” plan with 15-foot-wide sidewalks, better lighting, landscaping and public art. The utility lines will be placed underground, and some old buildings will be demolished. Most recently, a soccer store at Main Street and South Santa Fe was razed in December 2009.

• Slowing traffic: The street will be narrowed with fewer lanes and the addition of angled parking.

“We’re in the design phase of the infrastructure improvements and should start work by end of 2010,” Rawlings said.